MOSCOW, May 29. /TASS/. Russia’s latest Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) will carry high-yield hypersonic warheads and boost glide vehicles, Head of the Defense Ministry’s 4th Central R&D Institute Dmitry Knyazev said in the Military Output Acceptance program on the Zvezda TV Channel on Sunday.
"The payload on the Sarmat missile system covers a broad range of warheads. They include completely different options as compared to the Voyevoda missile system. In particular, the Sarmat will carry large-yield warheads and hypersonic boost glide vehicles," he said.
Russia test-launched the Sarmat ICBM from the Plesetsk spaceport in the northern Arkhangelsk Region for the first time on April 20. Work is underway at the Uzhur missile formation in the Krasnoyarsk Region in Eastern Siberia to rearm its forward regiment with Sarmat ICBMs.
The Sarmat’s warhead range has been expanded, in particular, in terms of the number of warheads and their types, including boost glide vehicles, which has been achieved thanks to the missile’s energy and mass characteristics.
The Sarmat ICBM has been developed at the Makeyev State Rocket Center (part of Roscosmos) and is manufactured at the Krasmash enterprise. In experts’ estimates, the RS-28 Sarmat is capable of delivering a MIRVed warhead weighing up to 10 tonnes to any location worldwide both over the North and South Poles.